It’s bad enough that, after decades of Mike Madigan’s leadership, the state can’t pay its bills. But now, his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, wants to take away the ability of state workers to pay their own bills.

Throughout the bitter dispute over the state budget, Madigan-Nemesis Governor Bruce Rauner has worked to keep the state government running so that core services are not completely shut down. The Governor has made clear that paying state workers for work that they do, while working to pass a balanced budget, is a top priority.… Continue Reading

Confronted with our Freedom of Information Act requests and hard questions from the Washington Times, the top cop in Illinois tries to justify a $1 million patronage pay spike problem. She admits that a “supervising” attorney was allowed to move two states away and 507 round-trip miles from the office after receiving a substantial pay raise. Read our Executive Summary here.

Governor-elect Bruce Rauner (R) won a slim majority of the total votes and by 142,284 votes over incumbent Patrick Quinn (D). Voter turnout was 49 percent, and compared to the 2010 gubernatorial election was down two percent, or 112,353 less voters in the 2014 election.

Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan won decisively with 59 percent of the total vote, beating Republican challenger Paul Schimpf who received little support from the Republican establishment in Illinois.… Continue Reading

The outcome of Illinois’ gubernatorial race proves anew that any mother’s son can grow up to be governor, provided that he can self-fund $28 million and raise another $60 million.

Republican Bruce Rauner‘s win also reaffirms another pearl of wisdom: Bad always gets worse. If Illinoisans thought that state government was incompetent and leadership was dysfunctional under the Quinn-Madigan-Cullerton Democratic regime, they ain’t seen nothing yet.

The Nov. 4 election, for Democratic politicians in Chicago, will be a “UPS moment.” Which committeemen among the 50 Chicago wards will deliver, and will their delivery be decisive and intimidating?

With Chicago politicians already heavily focused on the Feb. 24, 2015, municipal election, and those with statewide ambitions intensely pondering the state landscape for 2016 and 2018, the 2014 vote will, to use that old expression, “separate the men from the boys.”

Many decisions will be made, or unmade, based on which candidates run best and which committeemen produce the most votes.… Continue Reading